We often refer to it as Update Wednesday, but that's only because the majority of Google's app releases tend to roll out in the middle of the week. In fact, new versions can turn up just about any day. This week, it looks like Google started the festivities a little bit earlier with an update to Search 4.2. If you can't wait to get started, we've got download links down below.

We've done a side-by-side comparison, but there don't appear to be any special changes beyond a new location for the About screen in Settings. After a fairly extensive teardown, I could only find about a dozen interesting new strings that point to slightly expanded stats on sports-related cards, and a couple of images; but even those don't point to anything we haven't already seen in teardowns or live features. There has also been a very significant increase in code, but there don't appear to be any distinctly new features resulting from it. Otherwise, there's really not much to report.

This doesn't look like a regular bug fix release, so I'm almost expecting a new feature to go live after Google flips a server-side switch. In the meantime, if anybody notices anything new, let us know. Don't forget, the Search app comprises Google Now, Search, and the Google Launcher, so changes may turn up in any of these places.

What's New

It sounds that a pretty serious bug fix may have been issued with this release. The news comes in the form of a response on the Android Wear section of the Google Product Forums. Numerous complaints were registered about a bug that often resulted in the message "Try again on your phone" after attempting certain voice commands. In theory, this update should clear up most of those issues, assuming there aren't other connectivity problems. – Thanks, KF.

End of Update

From the Teardown

Just for fun, here are the bits that turned up from rooting around inside of the apk.

ic_training_google.png

ugly_android_work_icon.png

(Greatest. Filename. Ever.)

<string name="first_run_google">Pull down top bar to go to Google Search.</string>

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Comments

Simon Belmont

Please tell me it's fixed the GPS being turned on for 15 seconds after EVERY voice command (including when issuing commands from Android Wear. A real battery killer (Google App rises to the top of the battery stats, when it NEVER used to). :(

Prior to Google App 4.1, it would only blip the GPS for a split second. It makes me not use voice commands as much. :(

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

That has almost zero effect on battery life.

Simon Belmont

It has plenty of effect on my battery life. If it's at the top of my battery stats, then obviously it's affecting it.

But thanks for telling me how my own phone is acting (tested on several devices actually). I didn't realize you broke into my house and saw for yourself.

username

Pinocchio

makapav

I have the same problem. Can't even tell the QA tester to 'go fuck themselves' because none exist at Google.

Simon Belmont

Yeah. The ironic thing is that it makes me want to use voice commands less, which means less data for them to mine.

Prior to version 4.1 Google App, it was never at the top of my battery stats. After Google 4.1, it's always at the top, and the GPS On stat goes up by 15 seconds for each use (didn't use to do that prior to 4.1). It does this on several devices of mine (several phones, and tablets). And since Android Wear relies on voice commands, using it puts it up, too. So, it's an obvious bug.

@belac77:disqus @brucewillis_throwscar_at_you:disqus @andrewlink20:disqus @makapav:disqus It's not fixed in Google app 4.2, either. Just tested it on a couple devices and it still locks the GPS for 15 or so seconds for each voice interaction (dictation, command, or search, whether from phone or Android Wear).

What a shame. Google needs to QA their software better and spot check for regressions.

Yeah. Since I always keep the location mode set to "Battery saving mode", I never noticed. I just tried it with Google Search 4.1.whatever and it's exactly as you said in the OP.

Turning the screen off doesn't deactivate it, and it occurs in any state, as long as you performed an "Okay Google" query. You don't have to actually command it to do anything either - just as long as the prompt appears to listen for your command. I can't be assed to confirm the same on 4.2, so I'll just take your word for it and wait for the update to be pushed to me.

Simon Belmont

PRECISELY. You can't make it stop. Just opening the mic with "OK Google" or pressing it means it's gonna happen no matter what. It's dumb and obviously a bug.

I guess I'm gonna just switch over to Battery saving mode soon, which I think is ridiculous, BTW, because Android handles the GPS usage pretty damned well under most circumstances, and now I'll have to turn on the GPS when I need it instead of it being automatic. Le sigh. I hope they fix it someday.

I'm assuming you already sent feedback about this through the Help & feedback button on the GNow nav drawer right?

Simon Belmont

Yup. Ages ago.

Feel free to send it to them, too. The more they see mentioning the issue the faster they'll fix it, hopefully.

Simon Belmont

@belac77:disqus @makapav:disqus @andrewlink20:disqus @brucewillis_throwscar_at_you:disqus Little update (yes, I know it's weird I'm updating on an old comment thread, but anyway): It looks like voice dictation doesn't power up the GPS chip anymore in Google App 4.2 (I checked on a couple devices), which is at least a step in the right direction (it definitely used to in Google App 4.1).

Sadly, it still powers up the GPS chip for "OK Google" and pressing the microphone on the Google Search bar, for 15 seconds. So that is still a source of unnecessary battery drain, so keep submitting those feedback reports to Google.

The update appeared on APKM at about 6 or 7pm on Tuesday night (I thought that was kinda clear at the opening), thus the comment about it not actually being Wednesday yet. By the time I could run through a teardown and look for changes, it was late enough at night that we decided to wait until morning to publish a post, that way more people would stand a chance of seeing it.

Note: The page for the arm version on APKM has since been republished (for technical reasons), so it now shows up as Feb 25th.

I bumped it on apkmirror.com mid day today so that it floated higher on the page today and more people saw it.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Um, yes it is? It should be Wednesday even in the US by now

Du

Why don't you go spam some mics in dota and let the adults do the talking dear?

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Sorry to disappoint you, but luckily I'm smart enough not to play that piece of shit game

Crivel83

Thanks to Time Zone, in Italy is already Saturday! Yeahhhh m/

letsplaaay

It's 2016 in Korea.

le

There are currently many bugs in the Google Now Launcher I hope get fixed like for example: Names of 6th row apps inside of folders not appearing, whole launcher sometimes disappearing completely then returning once you close the screen and go back!

Simon Belmont

That disappearing and coming back is probably related to the Lollipop memory leak. Screen redraw, as it's called.

As for the other one, I'm not sure. I haven't encountered it.

ouss

I have a nexus 5 and I also don't have that problem, in fact there is no 6th row of apps in folders... Maybe on a larger screen things get a lil messy.

Well, haven't seen that Now Launcher banking off after this update. Maybe it got fixed. (Galaxy S5 International Exynos)

Simon Belmont

Can't get it to download from APKMirror. Not sure why. Everytime I hit download, it takes me back to the same page. But nothing downloads (I'm in Chrome mobile).

EDIT: Downloading isn't working on desktop Chrome or Firefox either (Win 7 64-bit).

ZachGalifianexus’s Beard

Same here. Can someone set up a mirror and link me to the apk?

MotoEyes

Download isn't working for me either..

Russel Taylor

You have to hit the blue download button next to the Play Store icon. It looks like an ad.

Simon Belmont

Yeah. I sure did, and it still loops back to the same page.

Something is messed up with the PHP, probably. Hope it's fixed soon.

Russel Taylor

Hmm.. That's odd. It worked for me. I figured you and I did the same thing at first. I was trying to use the button with the download symbol rather that the blue button with the word 'download' written on it.

Simon Belmont

Yeah. Isn't it fun when advertisements look like the buttons they're near to get you to click them? ;)

But, no, I clicked the right button. I've been using APK Mirror since its inception. :)

John

Anyone having the same problem, "Unable to launch event"?

Simon Belmont

Artem fixed it. I just checked.

He cleared the Cloudfare cache. Should work now.

Orkhan Ahmadov

Dat icon name :D

Rodrigo Tomé

There is a small visual improvement to show cards in equity shares. Now displays an arrow that indicates whether the value rises or falls.

Photon

Ok

Oscar

Navigation drawer still not fixed... Is it so difficult to implement?

Zargh

The Google apps notifications drawer wasn't broken in the first place.

Yep, its definitely a bug fix. It fixed the periodic crashes on Lollipop on Galaxy s5 (SM-G900H - International Exynos). Haven't seen a crash yet, was watching it crash every now and then. The lags and icon disappearing in Google Now Launcher has been fixed too.

hserf

Still can't search for installed app from the recent screen search bar... How stupid is that? If I can't find the app from recent screen that's the first thing I would do!

Dinsdale Drummond

I didn't know about this. Yes it's very stupid to not be able to do that.

Daniel Belini

Wich version should I download?
Arm, because my Moto X 2014 is a 32bit cellphone?
Thanks

Simon Belmont

Yes. ARM.

ARM 64 won't work for you. Cheers.

Daniel Belini

Thanks Simon
May your fight against the evil forces of Dracula be succeeded.

Simon Belmont

Yes. The Belmont clan will be victorious over the evil forces of darkness.

I will wield the holy whip of legend and rend Dracula and his minions to their ultimate doom. Pretty cool, huh?

PI

When will they bring Transparent Search and apps homepage ,,, this white one look real ODD

irked

APKmirror is beginning to irik me, the download button loops to the same page over and over, and it seems they are now more concerned about their ad revenue as if you have a blocker you now wait. I've done this from thee systems using three browsers ...

Tarun Pemmaraju

I just tried it with ABP, it's working fine. Disable your ad blocker if you have problems, they deserve the revenue they get.

Simon Belmont

Still not working for me, unfortunately. I've tried two tablets, and one phone, and a computer with two different browsers.

It just redirects me back to the same APK Mirror listing. No download.

Floss

Yes, how dare they be more concerned with making money than giving you stuff for free!

Chill, dude. It's obviously a bug, and I don't know what's causing this. It's not related to the ad blocker or ads at all. I think it's related to the anti-hotlink feature, which prevents other sites from stealing our bandwidth by linking directly to the APK link. Further, I think it's a Cloudflare bug, because it is caching the redirect response sometimes (very very rarely) when it's not supposed to cache redirects ever.

It's very annoying, and we'll try to sort it out, of course.

Simon Belmont

After you cleared the cache, it started working for me. I think it's probably that.

Yep, same issue here. After waiting for the countdown relating to the ad blocker, and pressing the download button, it fails to launch initially. The second press of the download button actually starts the download.

On what device are you getting frame drops? On the N5 there are none unless apps are being installed or doing something intensive in the background. On the N7 v2 it indeed frame drops half the time. Also, don't you mean swipe right? You're swiping a finger from left TO RIGHT rather than right TO LEFT.

Simon Belmont

My N5 drops teeny tiny amount of frames ONCE in a while doing that. Even if it's not doing anything intensive in the background.

I speculate that we'll be getting either 5.1.X or 5.2. And realistically speaking, I wouldn't put it past them to release it sometime around I/O. Remember how long it took for the N5 to get 4.4.2 last year?

Simon Belmont

That would be pretty disgusting of them. Considering how they made such an effort to get out Android 5.0.2 to fix TRIM issues on the N7 2012, you'd think a memory leak on multiple devices would have been out in weeks and not months.

I'm not freaking out about it or anything, but it's just weird how they handle this stuff. Oh well.

ginobili

Well, i'm using an Moto Maxx aka Droid Turbo (clean Android 4.4.4) and i experience the same lag in Samsung Tab S with CM12 (Android 5.0). Usually i'm not doing anything intensive. The frame drops everytime it has to update the cards.

Actually the same happens when you swipe through the whatsapp's contact list. Does that happens to you too? Probably is some API that makes the update is making this lag. These are the only two constantly lags that i have. The rest runs really smooth.

I understand that it takes some time to update the cards, but let me swipe without lag and then update the cards. It's very annoying.

pd: About the swipe, yeah, you're right, but you understood.

Greetings.

Jose Romero

Does anybody else experience a delay in the time it takes for the spoken voice to speak after saying commands like "set an alarm" or "remind me to"?

Simon Belmont

That happens to me occasionally. I have a big feeling it has to do with Google app needing to load up something in the background again because it's been kicked out of memory thanks to Lollipop's memory leak.

Ironically, though, it used to be worse on KitKat, for me, but an update to the Google app made it better. It's random for me.

dogulas

When is Nearby coming? Did they scrap it? Would be very handy to have reminders triggered when I'm next with someone.

Đức Thành

Well, have the Google Now bugs been fixed with this? Previous version pretty much crippled Google Now when it forbade people from outside of the US to even use it.

RW-1

The Arm download page loops back on itself, you never get to the download, the x64 is fine, serves up the file right away ... Can someone check it over there?

Jamie Andrews

Fine for me downloading via my N5 just a minute ago.

Cool

Still not downloading for me. Nexus 5 using Chrome.

Doesn't work on desktop Chrome or Firefox either. Kind of annoying.

Justin

Need help!!! Installed this apk on OnePlus and lost the ability to use Google Now voice prompt. Installed arm64. Can anyone help find a way to revert this to the old version.

tym0

"Apps">"Google App">"Uninstall Updates".

Justin

Thank you very much! What is the latest update for Google Now without arm64?

Not necessarily, PNR number is the technical term for your booking reference when you buy a plane ticket, I would guess that it has to do with flight lookup

YETI

I noticed two small changes, the cards now have dynamic shadows on lollipop, and when clicking on a topic there's a different animation with the coloured status bar

JD

Bring on 5.1 my body is ready!!!

Kurt Schultz

Can we please get links to open in the background?! It irks me every time I search for something and then have to search for it again because it wasn't what I was looking for. If I could open multiple links then it would mostly be solved.

Simon Belmont

Or just let us long press and choose to open in browser. Or incognito mode.

That would be great. I'd be so happy.

João Ricardo

What's the difference between the arm64 version and the normal arm version of the apk?

Total Faith

arm64 means it is determined for 64-bit Smartphones.

João Ricardo

My phone has the Snapdragon 410 so I need to install the 64bit version right?

Simon Belmont

Yes. You do, if you're on Lollipop.

The SD410 is 64-bit. So grab the 64-bit version.

João Ricardo

Thank you Simon.

Total Faith

Yes, exactly. Because your processor is 64-bit compatible, you should download the arm64 version ;D

Guest

nexus 5 is 32 bit year?

Total Faith

Yep, yours needs the normal arm version (32-bit).

Total Faith

Yes, indeed.

Chenks

Nexus 5 is 32 bit yeah?

Total Faith

Yep.

Total Faith

I think the animation of the opening window, when you say "Okay, Google" has slightly changed into a more "deepness-to-surface" animation and all in all the app is more stable, fast and accurate than before. In addition, the spoken sentences created by the app are more logical. If you end a spoken sentence with a "full stop" it will take one space between the dot and the next sentence. This has been awful before ;P

Simon Belmont

I see a new feature. It lets you activate Google Search / Now when the device is locked via headset (wired) or Bluetooth headset.

Artem, just curious, what ever happened to the strings in google search 2.7 that indicated we were going to get custom hotwords?

Ontari_do_not

ugly_response_ever.

Mathias

Does it improve the über fail white design in the Google now launcher (android 4.4.4 Nexus 5) ? Or at least give us an opportunity to change the all white fuckly design to a darker one?? It's the most amateur-like design I have ever seen. And why does a search app change how the fucking home screens and appdrawer looks like?? Considering moving to iOS... No other "launcher" works for me, so no..

CoreRooted

The White in the launcher is probably going to stay for awhile. The search app is part of the launcher. As for moving to iOS; IMHO, it's worse there. At least with Android, you can change your launcher (yes, I know, no other "launcher" works for you). On iOS, you are stuck 100% with what is provided.

Rodrigo

When you recognice a song now google go to the play store.

Simon Belmont

The "try again" bug on Android Wear was slightly annoying sometimes. But, it was fairly rare for me.

It would mostly happen if I dictated an extra long text message or email. The funny thing was that it would actually show the right words being dictated on the screen, but then said "try again" or "didn't get that" at the end, and then I'd go "grrrr" at it.

James Keleman

What is arm64 compared to arm? Can someone explain so I don't do something wrong to my phone? haha

Cool

It's for 64 bit devices. Regular is for 32 bit.

Most likely you'll need the non 64 bit one. Cheers.

Total Faith

You seem to be new on Android platforms. :P Good job, Mr.! Of you want I can explain you something. Do you know what rooting means? ;D
Have a good day!

James Keleman

Was that supposed to be funny? Clearly I just didn't understand the terminology and needed to be clarified

Total Faith

Sorry! Just a guess^^ Do you know the app XPrivacy?

James Keleman

Yes but I don't root my devices

Total Faith

Why do you not do that?

James Keleman

Well for one, my phone I use right now can't be rooted. And why root a device I like the way it is?

Total Faith

Just for security and speed (custom ROM) or for new features (Xposed modules ;D)?

Simon Belmont

Hmm, anyone having issues with it not letting you turn on "Now cards" in the settings of the Google app? I've tried over and over on my Nexus 7 2012, but it keeps saying I don't have a network connection, but I obviously do.

Funny thing is, Google Now works fine on other devices that already had it on. What gives?

Sandeep !!

It now has a new card about cricket players I guess!

Iagoba Apellaniz

It's been 2 or 3 weeks since I started listening Google now voice saying sorry when one tryes to correct it with "i said ...". Now it answers you with " you're welcome " if you say it thank you.
Definitely it's getting more human behavior time to time.

joe

Anyone having issues with it not letting you turn on "Now cards" in the settings of the Google app? I've tried over and over on my Nexus 7 2012, but it keeps saying I don't have a network connection, but I obviously do (strong signal on Wi-Fi, Chrome opens websites, etc).

Unfortunately, the solution sucks. I ended up having to delete my card preferences, but then it finally worked. Of course, after that I had to redo all my card preferences, but oh well. These types of bugs are the most irritating because an update broke something so seemingly innocuous.